


How to Avoid a Summer Love

by Masterless



Category: Call Me By Your Name - All Media Types
Genre: Instruction manual, M/M, Uses references from both the book and the movie, how to, i wrote this for class
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-05
Updated: 2018-03-05
Packaged: 2019-03-27 14:35:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13882917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Masterless/pseuds/Masterless
Summary: Instruction Manual: How to Avoid a Summer LoverDon’t notice how the skin of his inner arms and the underside of his feet are pale and soft looking.If you do, don’t touch.





	How to Avoid a Summer Love

Instruction Manual: How to Avoid a Summer Love

  1. Don’t notice how the skin of his inner arms and the underside of his feet are pale and soft looking. 
    1. If you do, don’t touch.
  2. Don’t notice that he wears the star of David around his neck. Don’t think of how it’s a small connection you have. Don’t think of the implications it has for what is in his swimming trunks.
    1. If you do, don’t tell him you wear one, too.
  3. Don’t lead him into the house when he says he likes what you played on the guitar. Don’t play the piece on the piano, changed to see what it would sound like if Liszt altered it. Don’t alter it to see how it would sound if Buzoni had changed Liszt’s version. Don’t play the original version to stop him from walking away.
    1. If you do, don’t tell him you dedicate it to him.
  4. Don’t bring him to your favourite reading spot. Don’t tell him about all the things you know nothing about. Don’t tell him how you feel. Don’t grab his crotch when he kisses you.
    1. If you do, don’t ask him, “Am I offending you?”
  5. Don’t give in to how weak you really are. Don’t write to him, “I can’t stand the silence. I need to see you.”
    1. If you do, don’t read that he’s replied, “Grow up. See you at midnight.”
  6. Don’t meet him at midnight. Don’t go to bed with him. Don’t sleep with him. Don’t get hurt. Don’t hurt him. 
    1. If you do, don’t let him call you by his name.
  7. Don’t find him the next day, telling him that you missed him.
    1. If you do, don’t fuck anything up.
  8. Don’t go to Rome with him. Don’t go to the book signing. Don’t go to dinner with him and his publishing friends. Don’t get drunk. Don’t throw up.
    1. If you do, don’t let him kiss you against the wall.
  9. Don’t go to the train station to see him off. Don’t stand and watch until the train pulls away. Don’t call your mother and ask if she can pick you up.
    1. If you do, don’t cry.
  10. Don’t pick up the phone when he calls at Hanukkah. Don’t be happy and sad for him when he tells you he’s getting married. Don’t call him by your name.
    1. If you do, don’t listen to him calling you by his.
  11. Don’t visit him fifteen years later, he won’t recognise you at first. Don’t follow him to his office. Don’t go back to your hotel with him for a drink. Don’t say, “I said a drink, not a fuck,” when he looks worried. Don’t get that drink with him.
    1. If you do, refuse to meet his kids.
  12. Don’t let him visit you five years later. Don’t show him where you buried your father’s ashes. Don’t talk to him.
    1. If you do, don’t let him leave, not without looking at you, and calling you by his name.




End file.
